Frigate ‘Numancia’ returns home after 5 months in Operation ‘Atalanta’.

After sailing more than 26,000 nautical miles and 152 days away from her homeport, frigate ‘Numancia’ returned today to Rota Naval Base, after having deployed in Operation ‘Atalanta’ for five months.

Since leaving Rota, the 'Numancia' transited through the Mediterranean Sea, crossed the Suez Canal and sailed in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. During her deployment, the frigate visited the ports of Taranto (Italy), Valletta (Malta), Djibouti, Port Victoria (Seychelles), Mombasa (Kenya) and Shalala (Oman).

The main mission of the frigate has been to carry out surveillance and maritime security tasks and enhance the awareness of the maritime domain in this area of interest. Special emphasis was placed on the fight against piracy on the coast of Somalia and the Horn of Africa, where the ship operated together with other military units deployed in the area. In this way, the ship has successfully fulfilled her mission, contributing to maintaining international stability in this part of the world.

During the deployment, the ‘Numancia’ conducted several activities, including monitoring fishing activity and illicit trafficking, training coastal and police units of the federal government of Somalia, and exercises with other allied navies.

Faced with the emerging threat of UXV systems, the frigate ‘Numancia’ has sailed with new defense systems specifically designed to deal with new unmanned aerial threats (UAVs), one of the new challenges in the area. In the course of the mission, 320 flight hours were carried out between the SH60-F helicopter and the unmanned 'Scan Eagle' system.

In addition to the air assets, there was medical support team with capability to perform surgical interventions. Also onboard was a Marine Corps’ Operational Security team, a group of intelligence specialists as well as a LAAM (Light Anti-Aircraft Missiles) ‘Mistral’ battery squad that covered a wide array of military capabilities without which it would have been impossible to achieve all the assigned tasks.

Throughout these five months, the more than 210 men and women who made up the ship’s crew carried out their service at sea defending the interests of Spain and the international community.

On October 15, the frigate ‘Numancia’ was relieved by her sister ship ‘Santa Maria’ in the port of Djibouti, demonstrating the Spanish Navy's commitment to Maritime Security in the Western Indian Ocean through operation ‘Atalanta’, where Spain has maintained a naval unit in the Area of Operations uninterruptedly since 2009.